Jio AGR Dues: Reliance Jio pays its AGR dues of Rs 195 crore

Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) paid its statutory dues of Rs 195 crore to the government , becoming the only telecom company to meet the Supreme Court’s deadline of January 23.

According to people aware of the development, this payment was done on Thursday.

The Mukesh Ambani led telco’s dues are fraction of what its rivals – Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel – who have requested Department of Telecommunications (DoT ) to await the directions of the apex court on the modification plea before taking any action on the payment of statutory dues .

In fact over the last two days both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have written to DoT that although they will comply with the apex court’s orders , it would request the government to hold on till the next hearing .

The two operators decision to await the SC’s call on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) modification pleas, imply that they won’t make any payments to the government by the January 23 deadline.

Vodafone Idea, Bharti Telecom and Tata Teleservices owe an aggregate Rs 1.02 lakh crore in AGR-related dues. The phone companies were said to be initially planning to pay some part of this by the deadline but then took the view that the apex court’s decision to hear the modification petitions meant they could wait for its ruling on the matter.